PC, Pranab had working difference: Khurshid

Congress president Sonia Gandhi wanted the government to cap the perception of major differences between finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and home minister P Chidambaram, law minister Salman Khurshid has said. HT reports.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi wanted the government to cap the perception of major differences between finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and home minister P Chidambaram, law minister Salman Khurshid has said.

The two ministers only had a “working difference”, which was exaggerated by the media, he added. Khurshid also defended Chidambaram, saying he hadn't changed his stance during the 2G spectrum allocation.

Gandhi “certainly desired that the press should not make a meal out of something that maybe like a working difference, disagreement you have in daily working.... And I think she was absolutely justified in expecting that we will quickly put things to rest”, he said.

“Let me just tell you this, I don’t think that there was a vast difference between the two of them,” the minister told Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN.

“...Mr Chidambaram, even after the cabinet decision, continued to argue for auction,” Khurshid said. Chidambaram, who was then finance minister, could not change the policy as it was a cabinet decision, he said.

“Could Chidambaram alone have overturned the cabinet decision… once the cabinet had decided against auction?”